With the increasing elderly population in the mainland and the continuous acceleration of the aging process, the incidence of many senile and degenerative diseases is also rising, including degenerative scoliosis. The incidence of degenerative scoliosis is high, occurring in people over 60 years of age. It is said that when we become adults, the spine is fixed, why does scoliosis occur? And I heard that there are also young people who can get this disease, what is going on? Today I will briefly explain this knowledge to you.
Scoliosis is divided into many types, of which idiopathic and degenerative are more common!
Scoliosis can be divided into congenital, idiopathic, degenerative and so on. Among them, degenerative and idiopathic scoliosis are very common, so are the two cases the same? The difference is still very large.
Degenerative scoliosis, as the name suggests, is caused by spinal degeneration, tends to occur in the elderly, and this condition is preventable.
Idiopathic scoliosis is the most common type of scoliosis, there is no clear cause, it is more likely to occur in adolescents, it is difficult to prevent, and can only be detected and treated early.
What is degenerative scoliosis?
As we age, our spine will naturally degenerate and age, the intervertebral discs will slowly lose water, the elasticity will decrease, the joints of the arthrondromes and the muscles and ligaments near the spine will degenerate, and the spine can no longer maintain normal physiological curvature and is in an unstable state.
The intervertebral disc degenerates, atrophy becomes smaller, or even collapses, and when rotated, it will bring instability to the vertebral body. The degeneration of the joint process joint will also cause the displacement between the vertebral bodies, and the load of the entire spine is asymmetrical, which will accelerate the process of scoliosis.
The elderly are very prone to osteoporosis, if they are just in such a situation of asymmetric spinal force, minor trauma is also prone to vertebral compression fractures, if one side of the vertebral body collapse, it will also accelerate the occurrence of scoliosis.
What manifestations do I need to consider for degenerative scoliosis?
Degenerative scoliosis occurs mostly in the lumbar region, and the most common symptom is long-term, chronic low back pain, especially when standing and bearing weights, which can generally be relieved when lying flat. In severe cases, patients may also have compression of the lumbar nerve root, which is manifested by radiation pain, numbness, weakness and so on in the lower limbs. If the patient's scoliosis also causes lumbar spinal stenosis, there will also be intermittent limping, walking for hundreds of meters because of leg pain to sit down and rest for a while before continuing to walk.
Of course, there are some patients who are seriously ill, and we can see them hunchback and improper posture in the appearance.
After the age of 18, is scoliosis not occurring before the age of 50?
Generally speaking, scoliosis that tends to occur in adolescents is idiopathic, if the child has not had scoliosis all the time, after the age of 18, the spine is fixed, can parents breathe a sigh of relief?
In fact, degenerative scoliosis may also occur, and now there are also teenagers and early twenties who will have such scoliosis. So why do diseases that occur in the elderly also target young people?
In the past, degenerative scoliosis did occur more often in the elderly, but now it also occurs in young people. This is because with the current changes in the way of labor, study, and work, more people need to sit for a long time or bend over and kneel, plus often play with their mobile phones, and these bad postures will lead to the acceleration of spinal degeneration. Many people are young and their spines have aged to the age of 50 or 60, which leads to a lower age for patients with degenerative scoliosis.
This is not an exaggeration, so I still hope that everyone will pay more attention to the health of the spine. No matter what age people are, they must pay attention to the correct posture in their daily lives, try to play less mobile phones, increase physical exercise, strengthen the muscle strength around the spine, and carry out scientific calcium supplementation. Through these practices, you can help everyone to prevent the occurrence of degenerative scoliosis.